2013-06-30 SE Lower

Actually made myself do this for once.

Warmup - Shoulders

Overhead Squat -
45x5x3
65x5x2
85x5x3
95x5x1
Working on these. Thumbless grip required. I need to get side video so I can tell if I'm staying neutral.
Trying to work with an organized spine here; it's...interesting.

GHR -
5, 10, 7, 5, 4, 3
Working on maintaining an organized spine here too. It's a lot harder.
Shooting for 5x5 again before I head into higher reps.
Stretching calves between sets. I need to do soft tissue work in the mornings.

Barbell Row -
140x8x5
Last few reps of the last few sets were pretty bad shoulder-wise. I should probably repeat this.
Thinking I may sub this one out for Kroc Rows and put Barbell on SE Upper, though thinking about it I'd probably be better putting Kroc on Dead day to concentrate the volume.

Front Squat Hold -
275x20, 30, 30, 30, 30
First hold was wide stance with ring on the rings. The other four were medium with pinky - I'll stick with that. 285 next week.

Shake Recipe Update

Getting more refined. Per quart of water:
1.5 scoops casein
1.5 scoops whey
3 tsp psyllium (and increasing)
1 tsp kosher salt

The salt seems slightly too light (I get a bit out of a pinch more) but overall this seems like a solid "recipe" for mixing into a secondary container. I should probably get going on that, actually.

2013-06-28 ME Bench

Shoulder warmup

Bench -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x5
160x5

1-Board -
185x3
195x3
205x2
215x1
225x1
235x0
Wasn't sold on 235 when I went for it; today was generally pretty iffy actually, probably because I drank Wednesday night and royally fucked up my sleep schedule from there until some time in the next day or so.

Didn't help that Upward Bound are back and I had to use a crappy bench and new spotters, but that's not a good excuse.

Close Grip -
140x6x5
Still need to work on shoulder stuff

Gym closed so I had to leave.

I'm considering switching things around on my upper days a bit and adding in some additional rowing for back thickness. Tallying up the tonnage for last week on upper body pulling vs. pushing gives me roughly 2:1 pushing vs. pulling; volume-wise it's more like 1:1 (1:1.5ish if we assume deads get involved a bit and I actually do my SE lower day - I may start doing 5x5 squats or something just to give myself a reason to go in for that one). I don't particularly love the idea of dropping the push-ups or DB floor, but I can integrate those elsewhere (push-ups less so, and I don't know if I like the idea of cycling between more than 2 supplemental movements for a given upper body day, but still). Sticking a bonus run of rows in (i.e. rows 3-4 days out of the week) might do good things for aesthetics via back thickness and generally prove beneficial for shoulder health.

I also really need to start actually doing SE lower, as said.

2013-06-25 Deadlift Day

Weighed in at 163.8. Mostly water and glycogen, but I'm noticeably slimming out.

Warmup - Shoulders only. Mark Bell voiced some negative feelings on pre-workout foam rolling so I've just been skipping it, though I may have to resume soon because my left hip's acting up.

Deadlift -
135x10
185x10
225x10

2x25s, 2xMat -
275x2.5 + 3 (grip failed)
315x 14+5
The 315 actually had me break the weight 4 times because the straps kept coming loose. My grip was really bad today (had to break up both 185 and 225).
315 full-range to rerack was very, very slow

RDL -
205x10x5
Focusing on spinal organization and keeping the weight close to my body. The first 3 sets were way out in front, last 2 were much better. Working on neck position as well, though I don't have any video to gauge this.

Pulldown -
115x7, 5, 5, 5, 4+2
Getting harder. I'm guessing there's a glycogen element to this.

Rollout -
10, 10, 7-8, 6, 8
Organized spine and 1-joint rule make these ridiculous.

Protraction, Retraction, Curl - 25lb, one run (but double on the right for P&R)
Was blasted after this so I left pretty quickly.

Refining the Protein Shakes

Right now my thoughts per liter are:

2.5 scoops (75g) whey - current double chocolate

1 scoop (30g) casein - current chocolate PB, which works surprisingly well

1tsp whole psyllium husk - 2tsp pending future experiments, since it'll gel up eventually
5g creatine

Salt to taste

I haven't tried the psyllium yet, but the water doesn't gel up at 2tsp without the protein powders. This should give me 3 "meals" (or 3-5 hours worth) per bottle and keep me relatively full throughout the day since psyllium and casein both slow down digestion.

I also realized that casein (regular micellar, not the really expensive new one) isn't much more expensive than whey. Milk protein has casein at around 80%, so an even ratio probably won't hurt unless the flavors suck.

This has it around 30g protein per "meal," so I can hit 300g pretty easily with 3 bottles worth on fasting days. Once I have the recipe sorted I'll just start mixing it up a week at a time.

EDIT: Further note:
It just occurred to me that since the goal here is a really quick supply of amino acids early in the morning, the first shake (immediately upon waking) should probably just be whey, creatine, and salt. This kills the need for creatine later in the day.

UPDATE:
The psyllium actually seems to work pretty well at 1tsp. I'll experiment with upping it.

2013-06-23 SE Bench Day

I've been skipping far too many SE lowers (like, the entire last month's worth). I need to stop doing that.
Also noticed that Monday and Wednesday have no class from 1 until about 5, so I may be able to finagle something there. Also need to find out if Deng's down to train the mornings, though there are downsides there.

Warmup - Just shoulders

Bench -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x5
165x2x9
These felt heavier than usual (possibly the effects of the cut starting to hit me) but when I got them properly, they moved nice and fast. Hopefully things will pan out for the cut and this won't be an issue.

Floor Press -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x5
155x5x5
Still slower than I'd like, but good. Working on keeping my shoulders locked down a bit more while pressing, though I'm not actually convinced this is a good idea.

DB Floor -
50x10x5
Good starting point. Final rep was on the harder side. I feel these a lot in my triceps (clear sign they're weak - this is in my program to build up my chest and shoulders).

Pulldowns -
110x 10, 8, 6, 5, 5
Satisfactory

Ok, so, that didn't work out so hot

The big problem with doing this with chicken is that it's a huge pain in the ass to eat the amounts I'm after. I'm probably stuck with chicken for this weekend, but after that I'm just going back to a modified straight-up predator approach (partly for financial reasons).

So basically (using current training schedule and assuming no conditioning, because that's just not happening right now given my work schedule):

Monday - Protein sparing modified fast (12x25g protein shakes - probably two bottles x6 scoops)

Tuesday - 5-6 shakes throughout the day, low-carb medium pre-workout, 2lbs beef ribs + fruit post

Wednesday - PSMF

Thursday - 5-6 shakes, low-carb medium pre-workout, beef ribs and fruit

Friday - PSMF

Saturday - 5-6 shakes, low-carb small pre-workout, low-carb medium post-workout

Sunday - No shakes. Small low-carb meals throughout the day, then a 2-3 hour high-carb refeed after training (which should be in the early-to-mid afternoon)

The rationale here is actually pretty simple:

This is roughly how I dropped weight last time, I've just reduced the weekly calories and upped the protein

My lifts are usually awesome the day after a modified fast (so I may switch upper and lower days around)

I train better on a moderate meal (possibly with some more carbs in it)

I may look into training in the morning rather than at night just for convenience.

Shakes will be a 3-4:1 ratio of whey to casein (because whey's cheap and casein isn't) with salt (I'll figure out an exact dosage at some point) and mint extract (also for this). I'll probably make some kale chips on the side, too.

I'll look into getting some offal to integrate with the rest of the meals; I'll be taking a multivitamin (and glucosamine and fish oil), but offal is important in cooking and I need to get a taste for it regardless.

The refeed will be an actual serious cheffy meal (and Sunday will probably be chef day, honestly) with potatoes, rice, etc. as the main carb source.

EDIT: Oh, right, the financial justification. Protein via powder comes out to something like 2.2c/g, whereas from chicken it's more like 3.4c. Ultimately this means I can realistically get in an entire month (disregarding Sundays) for $200-250, which is pretty nice considering that's currently what I have budgeted for chicken alone.

If I go the Chicken Thigh route for the small pre-workout meals, I may wind up adding a solid meal to the end of each PSMF just to avoid spoilage. Then again, I might as well just go back to butchering whole chickens given how quickly I'll be using up the parts.

6-20-2013

Very successful day.

Warmup - Just shoulders

Bench -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x5
160x5

1-Board -
185x3
195x3
205x3
210x3
Was tempted to go for 215 after 205 but decided to play it safe. I think I had it in me (210 was hard, but for bad reasons). Still a very nice PR.

CG Bench -
135x6x5
Seems like a good starting weight.

Pulldown -
115x9, 5
105x6, 6, 5
I'm not satisfied with the ROM I'm getting here.
I've decided to keep going up anyway - I can drop the weight to increase range once I stall out. For now I'll count reps as legal if they hit my eyes.

Standing DB Cuban -
15x12, 12, 12, 10, 12
Rest pausing here. Standing is a lot better.

Pullup Retraction - 15x3
BB Overhead Shrug - 15x3
Pushup Plus - 8x3

Recipe: Apple, Rosemary, and Maitake- Stuffed Pork Chop with Pan-Fried Apples and Apple-Maitake Puree

I may try to add an actual sauce to this at some point (or possibly just use cider instead of actual apples in the puree and turn it into an actual sauce - I'll need to work on the "actually making sauces" part).

Ingredients:
1 Braeburn Apple
1 Pork Chop
1-2 Sprigs Rosemary
Butter
1 Shallot
"Some" dried maitake mushrooms
Sweet Marsala

In a small saucepan, add water and dried maitakes and simmer on medium heat to infuse for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees fahrenheit (alternatively, sous vide at 130).

Quarter the apple and remove the core. Peel and finely chop two segments (keep separate), and slice the remaining two. Remove and finely chop rosemary leaves and half of the mushrooms. Mix one chopped quarter, rosemary, and mushrooms in a small bowl until integrated. Puree the other apple quarter with your knife.

Using a sharp knife, remove and reserve the foot and any excess rind from the chop. Cut a pocket in the remainder, all the way to the bone; try to keep the opening small but hollow out as much of the chop as possible. Stuff with the apple-rosemary-mushroom mixture, using a funnel or piping bag if necessary (which it should be if you made the hole small enough). Oven for an hour.

Meanwhile, add pureed apple to mushroom stock and reduce by 2/3. Finely chop shallot.

Remove chop from the oven and heat a pan on high. Add the foot and rind of the chop to the pan as it heats. Once the pan is smoking hot, lightly salt both sides of the chop and quickly fry on both sides (we want a crust but not to overcook the inside, which should remain at medium). Remove chop and rind to rest; turn pan down to medium heat.

Add shallots to the pan, lightly salt, and sweat 2-3 minutes. Deglaze pan with Marsala, cook off, and then add the mushroom-apple stock/puree. Cook until thick and remove.

Turn pan up to medium-high heat, and add butter and sliced apples. Lightly salt and pepper the apples as they fry.

Plate with the apples arranged on top of the chop and the puree off to the side.
---
Notes:
Consider adding a LITTLE bit of butter to the stuffing.

Ginger may work here (I used ginger salt as an experiment and it seemed to do good things).

Try to make the puree into an actual sauce. I have no idea how to do this.

Flavorful mushrooms + apple seems like an excellent combination with lean pork (had a similar experience with chanterelles when I made the stuffed pork loin for dinner a few months back). Rosemary seemed to work.

Further Diet Update

I realized a few hours ago that the amount of carbohydrate I can get in a day just from eating a healthy quantity of leafy greens makes rice (and most other pure starches) kind of superfluous - it looks like I'm actually basically just hitting Lewis's approach full force, but with more portion control. The exchange here is that I'm now going to be dropping a lot of money on kale and spinach, but I'll live.

Also going to go through the full 18lbs of chicken per week on fasting alone - that's 2.25lbs (1kg) on lifting days and 3lbs (1.35kg) for conditioning/off. I'm not sure how I plan to divide that up.

6/18/2013 - Deadlift

This was a good day.

Warmup - Comprehensive but no glute activation

Deadlift -
135x10
185x10
225x10
275x3+7 (hook grip) from 5.625"
315x14+6 (strapped) from 5.625"
315x1 (hook)
My copy of Becoming a Supple Leopard came in yesterday, and I've been trying Kelly's spinal organization cues (squeeze glutes, pull ribcage down, deep breath, exhale and wrap your abs around your spine, sort out upper back, release glutes, go). Here I think they helped a lot with stabilizing my spine (speaking of which, these completely murdered my back - resetting was definitely a good choice).
Working on getting my hips lower for the entire pull.

RDL/Stiff Leg -
200x10x5
Strapped for sets 2-5. Surprisingly good back position, as far as I could tell. Again, spinal organization drill.

Barbell Row -
140x8x5
Less solid. I may just drop down to 135 until I'm happy with how I'm doing on these.

Rollout -
10, 10, 6, 6, "some"
Working on the spinal organization here, which makes the movement massively harder since I'm consciously avoiding lumbar flexion and extension.

DB Protraction - 22.5x12x3
DB Retraction - 22.5x12x3
DB Curl - 22.5x10x3
Did the right shoulder twice for the protractions and retractions.

I need to talk a lot less at the gym, regardless of what I'm being asked or who's there. No reason I can't pause for a sec to phrase things concisely.

6/16/2013 Food Log

Roughly 2 chicken breasts, tandoori marinade (scraped off before grilling)

5-spice beef (1lb of actual beef, hard to keep total track)
1.5 cups rice
2 Nectarines

Important lesson from today: Portion sizes need to drop. A lot.

Tomorrow's lineup, as an example:
800g chicken breast
0.5 cups rice (between 2 meals)
6oz 5-spice beef (between 2 meals, minimal lard)
1 Onion (in the beef)
1 Bunch Spring Onions (in the beef)
100g Kale (or more) to accompany chicken
Half-head bok choy (in beef)
1 nectarine (post-workout)
5 caps fish oil

This weighs in around 1800kcal. I'll drop things further in a week or so depending on how fast I lose weight.

Tomorrow's got some sled work for conditioning at lunch. Whee.

6/16/2013 - SE Bench

Warmup - Shoulders only

Bench -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x5
160x3x7
Getting better. Having some issues with the right side now (see below).

Floor Press -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x5
150x5x5
Strong starting point once I got the technique down. This should go up no problem.

Blast Strap Pushup -
8, 6, 5, 4, 4 (5F)
I've figured out the problem - it's not my left shoulder flaring out, it's the right one buckling forward. I need to be very careful about this (and possibly have someone watch for me so I can keep a neutral neck).

Pulldown -
110x 10, 8, 6, 5-6, 5
I'm starting to lose the activation sense in my right lat - I'm guessing it's time to focus a bit more on that side since I can get the left firing every time. I also need to make a huge point of actually doing my prehab and soft tissue work, because we're getting back into injury-prone territory on the right now.

Secondary Important Dietary Note

Bat and slice the chicken (vertically) before putting it on the grill, and/or slice it before marinading.

I currently have a very thick piece that's been on there for about half an hour. For contrast, the supreme I pulled off it cooked through in about five and most of the thinner one I put on after taking the supreme off was done inside of 10 each side.

Honestly, I should probably do some of the vertical slicing before marinading just so it's pre-portioned.

EDIT: Having just gone through the experience of batting out the thicker end of a large breast, I'm inclined to do all of the batting and slicing before I start the marinade.
Speaking of which, use less marinade and either don't score them or make sure it's a hell of a lot lighter than it is right now.

FURTHER EDIT: From watching the one I just hammered out, I'm guessing slicing is probably at least part of the way to go. My guess here is that hammering it out doesn't necessarily reduce the fiber density, so the heat's still experiencing more resistance.

Experimental Diet Update

Chicken breasts from Costco come in at $3.29/lb or something similarly obscene. That said, whey shakes didn't cut it for me today so I'm probably going to go for the solids and greens.

Each pouch from Costco comes in at about 1.5lbs (across 2 breasts), so while I've currently got them packaged in sets of 3 I'm thinking that (partly to avoid stupidly high costs) I'll go with 2 - puts me around 150g protein before what I'll get from actual meals. They're in packs of six, so at one pouch per day I'm running one pack per week, minus one day - I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to handle that yet (short of just buying them more frequently). Alternatively, I could run 3 breasts per day - downside being that it'd run costs up to about $200 per month, though since I don't plan to do this for very long I'm not sure how worried I should be about that.

The experimental part of this is that I still don't know how to handle eating the breasts. A few days ago I marinaded a few in a mix of tandoori and vindaloo paste, then grilled them on medium-high heat for a while - the results were very moist and pretty pleasant to eat (possibly because I was famished at the time), but I don't know if I can tolerate eating that 4-6 times every day, or how well it'll keep. I'll find out over the next few days, hopefully.

Options for peri-training meals currently include:
Various stir-fries (5-spice beef so far, though I'll expand that)
Braised short ribs with rice
Chicken and potatoes

More upcoming

6-13-2013 - ME Bench

This was a good day.

Warmup - Shoulders

Bench -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x5
160x5

2-Board -
185x3
195x3
205x3
215x1
225x1x2
235x1
240x1
245x1
This is the second-highest I've ever board pressed (last record was 255; that was about two and a half years ago, shortly after I hit a 230 bench). My guess is I'll still max out around 215-220 for bench at the end of this cycle, but I should wind up a bit higher two months on from there.
I took my grip out to ring finger on the rings; this makes a massive positive difference and I'm going to keep doing it. Previous bench PR of 230 (bodyweight 170-175lbs) was with middle on the rings (as reference).

DB Bench -
65x6x5
Excellent way to close out this movement.
Next time starts with 65s again.

Pulldowns -
110x9, 6, 5, 4, 4
Repeating.

DB Cuban -
12.5x12x5
Some work here

Curls -
20x10x3

6/12/2013 - Deadlift Day

Complete Warmup (...except glute bridges, damn)

Deadlift (2 plates):
135x10
185x10
225x10
275x3 +2 (mixed)
315x3 (mixed)
365x5+3 (strapped)
Back position's dying here. I think I may drop down only one mat at a time here (ie take 5 weeks to drop the rest of the way). I might even take it up a bit.
This also makes me think I should take it slower with the progressions once I've got the mats - ultimately since we're hitting both reps and weight here, there's probably not much of a progress drop. 5/8" probably is a decent thickness, actually. For the time being, I'm taking it back to 3 plates and working down one at a time. The big thing for me is that we're looking for 10-20lbs per cycle on bench - getting 45lbs per 8 weeks on deads (on average) would be ridiculous, and since I'm set on 365 as a starting point this is where it is.
Well, that or I could just drop to 315 and keep going from where I am. That doesn't sound too dumb, actually.

Stiff Legs or whatever -
195x10x5
Need to work on hip mobility. Not sure if I'm doing these with a safe low back position.

Barbell Rows -
140x8x5
The last few reps of the final sets were probably focusing on my lats above everything else, but I'll deal.

Rollouts -
8, 8, 7, 5, 2 (3F)

Diet Revision

Since I'm planning on cutting this short enough that just doing lots of whey shakes probably won't be a problem. That said, it won't come in that much lower than chicken breast, so depending on how well I can do chicken breasts I may stick with those. If I can't, it's about $110/month for the whey (versus around $130 for the chicken).

I'm mostly just making new entries as things come to mind.

Keeping track of source:
http://www.netrition.com/now_whey_protein_isolate_page.html ($202 for 20lbs, includes shipping)

General Update for Cutting

I skipped SE Lower this week to make it easier to adjust my schedule. The new version (probably starting a bit later in the week rather than immediately) has me doing conditioning work on all of my off-days.

Conditioning here is the same for all days (at least in my current thinking) -

Monday - Lunchtime/Afternoon Conditioning
Tuesday - Evening ME Lower
Wednesday - Lunchtime/Afternoon Conditioning
Thursday - Evening ME Upper
Friday - Lunchtime/Afternoon Conditioning
Saturday - Evening SE Lower
Sunday - Evening SE Upper

Conditioning in this case runs the full gamut of Sled Drags, Farmer's Walks, Push-Ups, and TVA exercises (probably just Stomach Vacuums). I may also get a rope for rowing the sled. Farmer trips may stay on the shorter end, particularly since I'm still hard up for good collars and it's a pain in the ass when the plates slip.

One trick here could be to drag the sled "there and back," farmer's walk "there," and then rope-row the sled to the new resting point. This is a tad limited by rope length (longest I can get from EFS is 50 feet, and 100ft of any rope could be a huge pain to store...though I guess there's always my trunk). For now I can probably just row the sled using the basic straps, honestly. I can't remember how hard Farmer's Walks hit my quads, but if I'm not satisfied there I can probably do Forward Drag, Backward Drag, Row, Farmer's Walk, Push-Ups or something...or maybe I should just stagger things and not be a lunatic. Kettlebell swings also come to mind as something I could to cut down on space and time (and for them I could honestly just omit the sled and carry work altogether and just do those plus push-ups, but I'm skeptical of this idea).

I'm also going to integrate more soft tissue work and stretching, especially for pecs, quads, calves, hamstrings, and glutes. Also put Glute Activation back in my warmups and do suitable prehab the way I said I would. I've also got some general mobility stuff I should do, and I'm guessing that'll fall heavily on the conditioning days - in particular, I need to sort out my side-to-side imbalance in hip rotation.

Program Spitballing

I've had an idea for future training stuff if I leave the RSF for any reason (or get tired of what I'm doing now, or whatever). I don't plan to try this soon, but it's basically the Texas Method augmented with Emevas' deadlift ROM progression (not shown in the outline because it can move around). This is basically targeted at increasing all of the lifts at a reasonable clip without access to anything less portable than a decent pair of squat stands. Incidentally, this isn't something I plan to try before I'm done with my cut.

Volume Day -
Squat 5x5 @ 90% 5RM
Pressing 5x5 @ 90% 5RM

Volume Day or Following -
Deadlift ROM Progression set at a ~9-week cycle from 6-7", <1" drops, and skipping any <1" days
(e.g. 6.75" start, drop 0.75" per week, skip the single-mat day)

Recovery Day -
Squat 5x2 @ 65% 5RM or Alternate
Pressing 5x2 @ 65% 5RM or Alternate

Intensity Day -
Squat 5x1 @ Max
Pressing 5x1 @ Max

Accessories and additional movements for each day are a bit more malleable.

The basic scheme is that, while the Volume day will take ages to complete and suck absolute balls (possibly to the point of shifting the deads forward a day), everything keeps with the recovery scheme that made the original program work so well. The Pressing approach here should probably run on what Rippetoe outlines in Practical Programming (Push Press for Volume and Intensity due to the higher weights used, Strict Press for recovery due to lighter weights per unit difficulty), though other approaches are obviously fine as long as they work (Push/Strict Press alternated with Floor Press from the ground comes to mind).

Additional deadlifting can probably spread throughout the week. My guess is just Speed Pulls on Intensity Day (especially if the volume comes a day after squatting), though if everything's on the same volume day you could probably stick light RDLs on Recovery Day.

Deload weeks at the end of each Dead cycle would probably be a good idea. It might help to add in another one somewhere in the middle (after week 4 or 5). Also note that there's probably a lot to be said for additional recovery days (and possibly even training on an 8-day week rather than 7) - I could see myself lifting every day with a lot of light squats and pressing to help feed into the Volume and Intensity workouts.

The hope with this outline is that since it mirrors the original layout and uses a relatively low-stress method for driving deadlift progress, I'd be able to move steadily on all of the full power competition lifts without getting completely sucked into squatting at the cost of everything else. The rest of this post just details some layouts, so I'm including a break to shorten the page.

Dietary Update for Cutting

I'm having fun in the gym again, which is great. My numbers are progressing, I (generally) want to go in when I plan to, and I'm always having a fairly good time (even when I'm passing out or talking too much).

My goal now is twofold: Keep getting stronger and drop more weight (towards actual shreddedness).

In light of Greg Nuckols' recent post (http://gregnuckols.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/slow-and-steady-weight-loss-i-think-not/) I'm actually torn on how to go about the weight loss. My experience agrees with his post (gaining back weight I lost very quickly has always been a huge pain in the ass), so I'm going to rethink my dietary approach and head back towards intermittent fasting (and Jamie Lewis-style at that).

My main concerns here have mostly to do with training - I generally train better on a (pretty damn) full stomach, and I'm not sure how I want to handle carbs around training (this is partly pending analysis of Kiefer's thing about avoiding carbs before training). My guess is that I'll emphasize a big meal before training and some manner of carb intake immediately afterwards, and otherwise focus on protein. This is also handy financially.

http://alanaragon.com/myths-under-the-microscope-part-2-false-hopes-for-fasted-cardio.html
I'll need to look further into the liver glycogen thing (it heavily affects whether or not I'll allow myself any fructose), but ultimately it looks like I should have some carbs before conditioning. Emphasis some. It looks like just having reasonably large meals with sufficient protein before and after training will have a pretty decent effect on its own.

Since we're fine-tuning here, my guess is that I should be aiming to get virtually of my fat from saturated, monounsaturated, and omega-3 sources. I'll look into ideal meats for this but it looks like I'm going to be focusing on lamb, beef, pork, fish (including shellfish), eggs, olives, and their fat derivatives. Chicken looks fine with the skin off (skin's w-6 levels are on the silly end). Sesame oil looks iffy (equal mono- and poly- but virtually no w-3), unfortunately. Protein for the rest of the day should be dominantly animal, and I should probably add some leafy greens to everything for general nutritional reasons.

It looks like glycogen replenishment after strength training actually isn't a huge concern - the short durations involved with weight training don't seem to deplete stores as much as I (and a lot of other people) thought they did. Carbs definitely look important after conditioning work, but not as much with the weights. Fruit looks like it'll be a valuable part of the post-training meal due to mental and anticatabolic effects of sustaining liver glycogen. They're also beautifully nutrient-dense (depending heavily on the fruit).

I'm somewhat inclined to ignore Kiefer's stuff on pre-workout carbs - I don't remember having any issues with low-carb meals before training (275x5x5 squat last summer on nothing but a stock of chicken wings, for instance), but I've also had great training days on very large meals (albeit with a decent break to lose some of the fullness) and today was a good example of one that went well on a small meal six hours ahead and a moderate-sized carb-heavy one about 2 hours earlier. The very large meal day is actually the best submax bench day I've had in a while, come to think of it. I'll read the papers he cites, but if they're anything like the rest of his sources they probably say something less relevant than what he claims.

I'm going to try to keep this paleo-based. Given my cooking tendencies, that basically just means no dairy products or derivatives, honey instead of sugar in marinades, and an emphasis on calorie-free mixers at bars and clubs. I'd also like to hit all of my micronutrient targets with whole foods (e.g. actual plants and a reasonable variety of them). Drinking's an evening activity for me, so I'm inclined to keep regular training in the evenings and either do conditioning in the later afternoon or hit it on my lunch break and label Friday something of a cheat day. Given the way my training's set up I don't think I'll do any full-day fasts, but that's subject to revision (heavily based on Lewis's recommendations).

I'm not going to skip breakfast. Between regular sources and review papers Aragon has a staggering body of evidence in support of eating early in the morning, and Kiefer has one source suggesting that a high-energy breakfast is unnecessary and possibly detrimental.

From this we actually get a fairly nice layout:
Have very low-carb, very low-fat, fairly high-protein meals throughout the day (1-3 hours; read Lewis for further guidelines) until about 2-3 hours pre-training (probably marinaded chicken breasts or low-fat fish [e.g. shrimp] plus some leafy greens for micros and fiber). ~1 hour pre-training have a moderately-sized meal consisting of meat, starch (subject to review for lifting days), and greens, followed with fish oil. Post-training have a second meal consisting of meat, starch, fruit, and possibly more greens, followed with fish oil and creatine. Daily intakes should be planned out to meet or exceed RDA for all micronutrients. ZMA before bed.

Protein goal is 25g/meal and 175g/day (both minimum). Collective calorie intake should probably fall under 2000 per day (which works out ok with drinks, actually - a single drink with a zero-calorie mixer comes in at 100-200kcal). It's probably realistic to hit 250g given that a single chicken breast runs up 40g on its own.

For practical food prep this basically means doing all laborious prep on the weekends (e.g. that's when we'll make a shitton of pasted garlic and ginger for stir-fries, set up any chicken kievs, vaccuum seal everything along with the relevant dry rubs or long marinades, etc.) so things are just ready to cook on arrival. I'm guessing I'll marinade the chicken in tandoori+vindaloo the way I have been, though now it'll be sans yogurt and with marinade scraped off after roasting. I'll probably cook the chicken in batch twice each week.

Cheat days should remain approximately paleo as well.

Meal size is subject to manipulation based on performance. If having them both moderate-sized doesn't work out for whatever reason (performance-wise, but also mentally etc.), I'll shift calories pre-workout initially, then try shifting them post-workout, then return to baseline and add calories preworkout, shift that to post-workout, then even out the two meals at the new higher level and repeat until good. My guess for performance is that I'll want pre-workout on the larger end so I've got enough of a "belly base" to use as a foundation - I've found that the sense of satisfaction I get from a big meal seems to carry over to my bench fairly well.

6/9/2013 - Submax Bench

Warmup (mostly shoulder rolling)

Bench -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x3
155x3x7
Focusing on touching a bit higher. I may have to take my grip out a bit to facilitate this, and I think the effect will be positive in the long run. Remastering the technique may take a while, though.

Press -
45x5x3
80x5x2
115x5x5
Took my grip out a bit further so I could get the bar down to my collarbone - now it's about a finger's width inside of the rings. The last rep of set 5 took me back to my old quad cramp days (which are probably coming back next cycle), but everything's good besides that.
I did the second set without breathing. It was pretty cool.
Hitting the floor press next week - starting at 150lbs, which should make for some fast early progress. I'm pretty sure I can match my pressing progress here.

I also made a note to lower the pitch of my exclamations.

Blast Strap Push-Up -
10, 6, 3, 3, 3
Had some lockout issues on several of these, but at least I finally hit 10 serious reps on the first set. I may cut these at 10 reps per set in the future.

Pulldown -
105x12, 6-8, 6, 5, 5
Focusing on lat activation makes counting a pain in the ass. I may have to start filming these for an accurate count.

Plate Halo -
25x10ea
These are getting easier on my triceps tendon, so I may actually push to the full rehab protocol fairly soon. Doing the halo relatively high on my head helps.
I'll try doing counterclockwise first next time.

6/7/2013 - ME Bench

Warmup - mostly lacrosse ball on shoulder and shoulder warmup

Bench -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x5
160x3

2-Board Press -
185x3
195x3
205x3
215x2 (3F)
210x3
215x3
220x2 (3F)
Good old-fashioned ME day. All failures were within an inch or so of the board.
Music helped with the later ones - I should probably save Lose Yourself for the emergencies and stick with Peace Sells for anything where I'm not really reaching.
Looking to hit a 235 single next week.

DB Bench -
65s - 6-7, 6, 5, 5, 4
Lots of technical issues on the later ones, but it's nice to feel stuff in my triceps.
Getting this next week.

Pulldowns -
100x 10(ish), 7-8, 6, 5, 5
1/3 of the way to the top.

DB Cuban -
15x10
12x10
12x12
12x10x2
The 15s made my shoulders hurt at the start of the external rotation; I'm not sure if this is actual joint pain or just my delts complaining about being used again. We'll see.

Skipped prehab and curls today so I could grab a drink with Paul.

Submax Lower and Upper for last week

I can't really be bothered to get the dates on these.

Overhead Squat -
45x5x3
65x5x2
75x5
80x5

GHR -Ow

Row -
135x6x2
135x4x1
135x5x2
Lack of success here fed into my change in rowing technique for the future. Not focusing as much on thorax anymore, at least for now.

Front Squat Hold -
275x30ct
295x30ctx4
295x25ct
Fun

Prone Y - 2.5x12x3
Incline Retraction - 7.5sx12x3
Face Pull - 20x12x3
Curl - 22.5sx10x3
----

Bench -
45x5x3
95x5x2
135x3
150x4x5

Press -
45x5x3
75x5x2
110x5x5
Very happy here. Discovered that breathing while holding the top of a rep really helps maintain tightness and prevent issues at the end of a set.

Blast Strap Pushup -
8, 6, 6, 3, 3.5
Noticing some weird stuff with my left scapula here - the right one stays locked down, left one flares up. Not sure what problem that indicates but fairly sure I should stop my sets shorter so it doesn't happen.

Pulldown -
95x 10, 8, 7, 5, 5

Plate Halo -
25x12x1
Yup

6/5/2013 - Deadlift Day

Warmup with rolling

Deadlift -
135x10
185x10
225x8
275x5 (mixed)
Added mats and plates (2x25, 2xMat)
315x4 (mixed)
365x 6+2 (strapped)
Solidly cutting myself off at 5 before the rest-pause now. Also need to focus more on proper upper back movement while maintaining the lower back (which I'm doing better now, actually).
I'm not sure what I'm going to do RE: mat thickness but I have a feeling that dropping 1.25 inches every week is a poor choice and I should go go for less (2/3 inch?).

Romanians/Stiff Legs:
185x10x5
Glutes dying, hopefully low back as well. I'm liking these again (couldn't do GHRs due to calf tightness, may alternate the two or something). 195lbs next week (going to really hammer my calf tightness so I can hit the GHRs on Saturday).

Barbell Rows:
135x8x5
Bodybuilder-style (except for the first set). Focused on pulling with my elbows to emphasize mid-back stuff (hint from...somewhere, probably EFS). 140lbs next week.

Rollout:
9, 8, 7, 5, 4
Need to work on TVA activation when I do these.

Skipped prehab.